Spiritual Growth Isn’t a Costume Change 🎩

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

We often approach self-growth like it’s a shopping list.

Read more books.
Learn another concept.
Master the next habit.
Add, add, add.

“Awakening is not adding layers; it’s stripping away illusions.”

But what if awakening wasn’t about becoming more…
and instead, about becoming less covered?

Less disguised.
Less armored.
Less filtered by expectation, performance, or fear.

I used to think healing would make me feel larger.
More powerful. More impressive.
But the deeper the work went, the quieter the results became.

It wasn’t grand revelation, it was a quiet unlayering.

I stopped chasing approval.
I stopped explaining myself where I wasn’t safe.
I stopped performing versions of “me” that made other people more comfortable.

And slowly, I noticed:

The more I let go, the more clearly I saw who I’d been all along.

Not a project to be improved.
A person to be remembered.

That’s what awakening does.
It doesn’t inflate you.
It strips away the illusion that you were ever broken in the first place.

These small notes arri…